Abstract: Fruits and vegetables are prone to physiological and biochemical changes such as oxidative browning,tissue softening,rot and deterioration during postharvest and storage,resulting in the decline of fruits and vegetables quality,economic loss and waste of resources. Therefore,the research and application of fruits and vegetables preservation technology is particularly important. The fumigation technology mainly uses a fumigant to diffuse in a gaseous form and interact with fruits and vegetables to control enzyme activities such as polyphenol oxidase(PPO),peroxidase(POD)and superoxide dismutase(SOD),inhibits the growth of bacteriain. A theoretical basis is provide for the selection and application of fumigants towards fruits and vegetables preservation in this paper by summaring the recent progress on the application of fumigants in the preservation of fruits and vegetables,such as ethanol,nitric oxide and plant essential oil.